U2: New Year`s Day (video)

The album came out in early 1983, and I bought the casette in Paris in late 83/early 84 when I was studying abroad there. I remember listening to it non-stop as I took the overnight boat from France to England to visit my friend Jenny who was doing her year abroad in London. I met two English students on the trip over who were a riot. I`m still friends with one of them today.

There`s something about this album – must we say CD or DVD if we knew the music first as an LP (or cassette)? – that just gets me going. It`s what I call `rollercoaster music.` There are also rollercoaster movies, and rollercoaster books and poems. The idea is a work of art that picks you up and carries you along for the entire ride, only to drop you off at the very end, exhausted and satisfied. I`d include New Order among my rollercoaster bands. Depeche Mode is one too.

John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.